PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The No. 5 Old Dominion women’s field hockey team (12-6, 6-1) defeated Rutgers (9-8, 2-5) by a 1-0 final Friday afternoon. The win lifts ODU to at least a share of the Big East title and is the Lady Monarchs 11th win in a row to complete the regular season.

“I am really pleased with our mentality today,” said ODU head coach Andrew Griffiths. “Rutgers’ goalkeeper played very well and we stayed aggressive and composed and found a way to score. And as we pushed forward we did a great job of keeping defensive structure – we only conceded three shots in the game, and none in the second half. Tremendous defensive effort.”

Old Dominion began the first half on the offensive attack, outshooting the Scarlet Knights 14-3. Despite the shot advantage the Lady Monarchs could not find the back of the net. ODU goalkeeper Megan Hept made all three of her saves in the first half and ODU had a six to one penalty corner advantage by halftime.

In the second half, ODU would not allow one shot and did not allow a penalty corner. The Lady Monarchs received an offensive spark from Katy Fuhrman after Kelsey Smither led the charge to the goal and Fuhrman rebounded the initial shot and scored her third goal of the season.

ODU outshot Rutgers by a 23-3 tally and had nine penalty corners to the Scarlet Knights one. ODU goalkeeper Megan Hept made three saves and earned her 12th win and seventh shutout on the season. Rutgers goalkeeper Shevaun Hayes made 13 saves and fell to a 9-8 record on the year.

“The most important point for us is that we didn’t look past this game with the Big East tournament next week,” said Griffiths. “I am pleased to finish the regular season on a winning note, and the players will now rest and recharge for the postseason.”

The following is the Big East policy to break ties at the end of the regular season for seeding purposes:

*If Louisville and UConn all win this weekend the tiebreak is decided by *Number 3*

1. Regular season head to head results. If three or more teams are tied, they are viewed as a ‘mini-conference’ when comparing head-to-head results. The team or teams with the best-combined record versus the other teams in the mini-conference gain(s) the advantage.

2. Each team's record versus the team occupying the highest position in the standings, continuing down through the standings until one team gains an advantage.

NOTE: When arriving at another pair of tied teams while comparing records, use each team's record against the tied teams as a group rather than the performance against the individual tied teams.